Oakland Raiders, SF 49ers Lose, Cam Newton Sets Records

The Oakland Raiders looked good in beating the Buffalo Bills 21 – 7, but that was in the first half of the game. The second half saw the Bills take advantage of a bit ot Raiders relax to catch up and win a tough battle 38 to 35. It was a game the Raiders had, got back, and should have won.

The problem is not with the Oakland Raiders Offense – it can move the football. And with three starting wide receivers out, rookie Denarious Moore caught an amazing 50-yard touchdown pass, taking the ball away from the defender.

Nice. But the Raiders Defense didn’t hold the Bills in check and is not designed to have the aggressive blitzing and fronts that pressure an offense. Moreover, the defenses are not structured for proper “man-to-man” gap control on running plays – on video, it looks like they’re still having the defensive ends two-gap.

The result: the Bills picked up huge chunks of yardage in the second half, especially once they realized the Raiders weren’t into the habit of blitzing a lot.

They played not to lose, but almost won anyway.

That’s the same statement the San Francisco 49ers faithful can make, as they were in what turned out to be a barn-burner that went into overtime against the Dallas Cowboys.

The difference in this game was Tony Romo coming back into the game after a rib-cracking hit (literally). He willed himself to play better, and did.

But thank the Cowboys’ Rex Ryan designed defense, which checked in with six sacks on the 49ers Alex Smith, for giving Dallas a chance to come back and take the game into overtime.

The Panthers Need A Defense

If the Carolina Panthers had a defense like the Cowboys, rookie QB sensation Cam Newton would be presiding over a 2 and 0 team, and not a 0 and 2 team. Still, Cam Newton set two records after throwing for 432 against the Green Bay Packers and 422 versus the Arizona Cardinals the week before. As said at Zennie62.com, Newton wasn’t expected to clock in that kind of performance, but he did. And Newton will do it again against Jacksonville.

In all of the bright lights around Cam, it’s important to look back on his first official NFL press conference at the 2011 NFL Draft: